NBC Sports Network presents 19 hours of coverage surrounding the Indianapolis 500, including live qualifying, Carb Day, Indy Lights, an IndyCar 36 episode, and the Indy 500 Parade. Live qualifying coverage begins this Saturday, May 18 at 11 a.m. ET, continues through Saturday, and returns on Sunday, May 19 at noon ET. Qualifying coverage is highlighted by the NBC Sports Network broadcast debut of former IndyCar driver and 2003 Indy 500 winner Gil de Ferran. Thoughts from de Ferran on his win and on new IndyCar President of Competition/Operations Derrick Walker can be found on MotorSportsTalk.

In addition, NBC Sports Network presents live coverage of Carb Day, the last practice before the race, with the return of renowned motorsports voice Bob Jenkins. Coverage begins on Friday, May 24, at 11 a.m. ET, continues with Indy Lights at noon ET, and is followed by more Carb Day coverage. The premier of IndyCar 36featuring driver Simona de Silvestro airs at 10:30 p.m. ET that night.

NBC Sports Network concludes its coverage on Saturday, May 25, with the Indy 500 Parade live at 5 p.m. ET.

QUALIFYING COMMENTATORS: Former IndyCar driver Gil de Ferran joins NBC Sports Network’s team as an analyst this weekend 10 years after his Indy 500 win. de Ferran is filling in for NBC Sports Network IndyCar analyst Townsend Bell, who is attempting to qualify for his seventh Indy 500. In 2009, Bell finished fourth in the race.

Sharing the booth with de Ferran includes play-by-play announcer Leigh Diffey and analyst Jon Beekhuis. Diffey is working IndyCar this weekend, but will travel abroad next week to call the Monaco Grand Prix. Veterans Kevin Lee and Marty Snider manage the pits, and are joined by reporters Robin Miller and Will Buxton, the Formula One reporter who is making his inaugural trip to the Brickyard.

Coverage on Sunday will feature Bell driving first-timer Buxton around the oval at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in a two-seater.

CARB DAY COMMENTATORS: Legendary motorsports voice Bob Jenkins returns to the booth for Carb Day on Friday, May 24, filling in for Diffey, who will be at Monaco. Jenkins will be joined byBeekhuis and race analyst and former NASCAR driver Wally Dallenbach, Jr. Veterans Lee,Snider and Miller will manage the pits.

Mike King will call Indy Lights on Friday, May 24, alongside Jake Query.

DIFFEY ON INDY 500 QUALIFYING: “The way this year’s IZOD IndyCar Series has gone, who can’t be excited about the Indy 500 Pole Day? This time last year, Penske Racing had dominated all four opening rounds of the series and led the championship. This year they haven’t won a race, nor has defending Indy 500 winner Chip Ganassi Racing, and there have been two first-time winners from the first four races. It’s a season of surprise.”

INDYCAR 36: NBC Sports Network offers motorsports fans another episode of the all-access series IndyCar 36. This week the cameras follow driver Simona de Silvestro, who made history by becoming the first woman to earn a podium spot at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2006.

The NBC Sports Network original series is produced by IMS Productions and gives viewers an all-access pass into the life of a world-class driver in the middle of race season. The cameras will follow a driver for 36 hours during a race weekend providing a behind-the-scenes look at the on- and off-track activities of the stars of the IndyCar Series. The all-access 36 series also includesNHL 36, Fight Night 36 and F1 36.

INDYCAR ON NBC SPORTS LIVE EXTRA: NBC Sports Live Extra — NBC Sports Group’s live streaming product for desktops, mobile devices, and tablets — will live stream Indy 500 qualifying on Saturday and Sunday, May 18-19, Carb Day and Indy Lights on Friday, May 24, and the Indy 500 Parade on Saturday, May 25. Coverage will be streamed via “TV Everywhere,” the media industry’s effort to make quality content available to authenticated customers both in and out of the home and on multiple platforms.

For desktops, NBC Sports Live Extra can be accessed at NBCSports.com/liveextra. The NBC Sports Live Extra app for mobile devices and tablets is available at the App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and on select Android handset and tablet devices within Google Play.

Coverage airing on NBC Sports Network will live stream to PCs, mobile devices and tablets throughNBC Sports Live Extra, and to the digital platforms of participating cable, satellite, and telco services, via “TV Everywhere,” which is available on an authenticated basis to subscribers of participating MVPDs.

INDYCAR ON MOTORSPORTSTALK:MotorSportsTalk (@MotorSportsTalk) on NBCSports.com brings racing fans up-to-the-minute news, video and information on the IZOD IndyCar Series, Formula One™, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and all other motorsports racing from around the world. The site also serves as the destination for all news, analysis and video from NBC and NBC Sports Network productions of IndyCar and F1, including contributions from on-air commentators.

MotorSportsTalk’s content is provided by top racing journalists and expert analysts, including:

Tony DiZinno (@TonyDiZinno), who has written for RACER Magazine and has covered IndyCar and NASCAR since 2006;

Writer Christopher Estrada (@estradawriting) who has written for the Boston Globe, FoxSports.com, created the Indy Racing Revolution blog and is a contributor to IndyCar’s IndyCar Nation blog.

The second season of “Dinner with Racers,” presented by Continental Tire, drops its first batch of episodes today.

The 28-episode season follows the first 28 episodes released last year. This year, podcast hosts and sports car veterans Sean Heckman and Ryan Eversley saddled up in a Honda Odyssey minivan for the cross-country tour, while riding on Continental Tires.

There’s some great guests and details. Here’s the full breakdown, plus a video, below:

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One year after the successful debut of the motorsport podcast series “Dinner with Racers,” the antics of Ryan Eversley and Sean Heckman have returned for the binge release of “Season Two,” launching today. Following their 2015 debut that featured a month-long road trip recording 26 conversations “over dinner” with some of the most interesting characters in motorsports, the duo will launch another 28 recordings for their 2016 adventure. The second season will be released in two waves, with “Release One” launching the first 14 recordings immediately, and “Release Two” featuring an additional 14 recordings slated to release on December 16. All episodes can be found at www.dinnerwithracers.com or via iTunes.

Traveling for 40 days across 29 states, and covering 12,000 miles in 2016, the trip was made possible in part by the Honda Odyssey that was lent to the team by American Honda Motor Co., Inc, and most importantly thanks to a continuing title partnership with Continental Tire, who not only provided Cross Contact LX20 tires for the trip but covered the team’s expenses, as well as every meal.

Continuing the same theme from the debut season, #DWR2 follows a nearly identical format. A factory racing driver for Acura in the World Challenge series, Ryan Eversley makes up half of the hosting lineup, with motorsport marketing / creative content veteran Sean Heckman completing the duo. Using their unique blend of humor, insight, experience, as well as genuine love of the sport, Eversley and Heckman pick up right where they left off in Season One, exposing some of the most unique and entertaining stories from their variety of guests.

Meeting up with 28 different characters “over dinner,” listeners will exposed to a variety of personalities, everything from NASCAR and IndyCar star drivers, to some of the most respected engineers and mechanics, journalists, and broadcasters in the business. Stories cover everything from what it was like to be the first woman to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 and then Daytona 500, to giving up a contract worth over $2mil just to be a “good guy,” to turning a satiric twitter account in to a full-time job, as well as enjoying life after nearly three decades in prison. Topics include everything from a transgender pig, to being given dead cat whiskers as a good luck charm, to having guns pulled in the middle of a race shop, and even buying a race track in the hopes of laundering money through it.

For Ryan Eversley, a chance to continue the series was a welcome one.

“I know it’s a cliché, but It truly is such an honor and a privilege to be able to do this,” stated Eversley. “Both Sean and I were truly blown away by the fan support from Season One, it’s honestly something we weren’t expecting. It really meant a lot to get so many nice comments, and that kept us very motivated for Season Two. I think our genuine love of the sport translates when people listen, because we really enjoy hearing the real back stories in what makes everyone so unique. This season did not disappoint us at all. This show lives and dies by its guests, and we couldn’t have been luckier to have such a great group who were not only engaging and interesting, but also incredibly gracious with their time. It’s an absolute blast doing this, and we really appreciate Continental for continuing their support, as well as Honda for giving us an incredibly comfortable car for such a long trip.”

For Sean Heckman, a similar sentiment is shared.

“What he said,” stated Heckman.

Additionally, the series will continue to support less exposed musical acts, with each episode promoting a variety of musicians and bands at the close of every episode.

Ahead of the event in Las Vegas, each of the 10 of the sim racers that have qualified have been paired up with a Formula E team.

“I’d like to officially welcome the sim racers who qualified through the Road to Vegas Challenge to participate in the inaugural Visa Vegas eRace,” Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag said.

“I’ve been following the progress of the sim racers throughout the qualification process, and I can’t wait to see them on the same track as the rest of the Formula E grid.

“Accessibility and fan engagement are two of the key cornerstones of Formula E, and what better way to promote this than getting the sim racers to compete in the same colours as their Formula E counterparts – it will be fascinating to see who comes out on top.”